Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Saturday that Rep. Lance Gooden’s (R-TX) accusation that Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) could have a connection to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is “false, racist, and xenophobic.”
Clinton’s remark came after several Democrats in Congress spoke out against Gooden for drawing attention to Chu and asserting she was an “honorary president” of a group called the All America Chinese Youth Federation (AACYF), leaders of which, Gooden said, allegedly belonged to front groups for the CCP.
Chu categorically denied any affiliation to the group on February 14.
The next day, Gooden led a handful of Republicans in writing a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray that was mainly about Biden appointee Dominic Ng’s possible ties to CCP front groups but also zeroed in on Chu.
In the letter, Gooden said Chu advocated for Ng’s appointment to his current position, and Gooden asserted she was the honorary president of AACYF, despite her denying it the day before.
Chu and others in the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus condemned Gooden’s letter, issuing a statement defending Ng and accusing Gooden of “profiling.”
“No Chinese Americans—indeed no Americans—should face suspicions of disloyalty or treason based on their ethnicity, nation of origin, or that of their family members,” they wrote. “That kind of profiling is beneath us all, particularly those entrusted with public office.”
Gooden appeared on Fox News a few days later where he doubled down on his comments about Chu, saying, “We’re standing up to Communist China, and these Democrats’ first reaction is to come to their defense and call us all racist.”
Gooden continued:
I question [Chu’s] either loyalty or competence. If she doesn’t realize what’s going on then she’s totally out of touch with one of her core constituencies. I think she has drug along the other Chinese American members to sign this letter, but I do think she’s the ringleader and I’m really disappointed and shocked that someone like Judy Chu would have a security clearance and be entitled to confidential intelligence briefings until this is figured out.
Gooden’s comments sparked outrage from Democrats, including, most recently, Clinton, as well as Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Chu herself, and others.
“The attacks on Rep. Judy Chu are false, racist, and xenophobic. All people of conscience should stand together to say so,” Clinton wrote on social media.
Jeffries said in a statement Gooden’s “slanderous accusation of disloyalty against Rep. Chu is dangerous, unconscionable and xenophobic.”
Chu, for her part, said during an MSNBC interview that Gooden’s comments about her were “absolutely outrageous and disgusting.”
“It’s based on false information spread by an extreme right-wing website, but furthermore, it’s racist,” she said. “I very much doubt that he’d be spreading these lies were I not of Chinese American descent.”
Gooden’s initial letter and the subsequent reactions came after the conservative Daily Caller published a string of stories on both Ng and Chu in January and February.
The outlet reported that Ng, the East West Bank CEO and a Biden donor whom Biden appointed last year to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council, had been a member of two groups that the outlet found were front groups for the CCP’s United Front Work Department, which works to assert the Chinese government’s influence overseas.
Likewise, the outlet connected Chu to members of the two front groups, as well as to the AACYF.
Gooden and other Republicans wrote in their letter to Wray that the Biden administration had “allowed the CCP to infiltrate the third-party sector and, consequently, political leaders that have existing relationships to these groups and are privy to U.S. intelligence.”
“Further encroachments cannot be tolerated,” they wrote and requested Wray provide Congress with a report “on the extent of Mr. Ng’s knowledge of sensitive information, as well as any potential violations of the Espionage Act.”
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.